DOCSLIB.ORG

Colores in Cicero's Philippics I and II, and in Pliny's Panegyricus Marilyn Jacke Smart

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Colores in Cicero's Philippics I and II, and in Pliny's Panegyricus Marilyn Jacke Smart University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Master's Theses Student Research 6-1970 Colores in Cicero's Philippics I and II, and in Pliny's Panegyricus Marilyn Jacke Smart Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Smart, Marilyn Jacke, "Colores in Cicero's Philippics I and II, and in Pliny's Panegyricus" (1970). Master's Theses. Paper 980. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COLORES IN CICERO'S PHILIPPICS I AND II, AND IN PLINY'S PANEGYRICUS BY MARILYN JACKE SMART A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS JUNE 1970 LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND VIRGINIA APPROVED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ANCIENT LANGUAGES 5_. ;p. I "tW ~DIRECTOR (J.rli;:,_ ~ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My eternal gratitude and love to my hus­ band, John, and my daughters, Beth and Susan, for their understanding and cooperation in this endeavor, but most of all for their lov­ ing patience which at times was only short of m1raculous. My appreciation and love which can never be adequately expressed to my mother, my fath­ er and my grandmother, for their tireless ef­ forts to free my.. time, and for their unending encouragement, comfort and love. My thanks to the members of the faculty and my friends in the Department of Ancient Languages of the University of Richmond for their friendship, encouragement and help. My very special thanks to my director and friend, Dr. Joseph s. White, for his time t' his advice and his determination and assurance that this thesis would be completed. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . i PREFACE • . iii CHAPTER I Non-Technical Color • . • . 1 Technical Color • • . .. .19 CHAPTER II The First Philippic . • • • • • • 4 4 The Second Philippic . • • • • • • 5 8 CHAPTER III .71 CONCLUSION . • • 9 5 BIBLIOGRAPHY Ancient Sources . i Modern Sources • • . v VITA LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND VIRGINIA ii PREFACE Color, as a figure of speech, is a small part of the art of rhetoric. The various definitions and uses of color in a selection of ancient writers form the subject of this thesis. The purpose is to present examples of col'o'r'es found in· PhiTi·p·pics I and II of Cicero, and in the· Pan·egy'r'icus of Pliny the Younger. These ex­ amples will be correlated to the demands of the situation of each speaker. Cicero's speeches represent free oratory during the period of the late Republic; Pliny's speech represents epideictic oratory during the Empire. The first chapter of this thesis will serve as an introduc­ tion to the history and development of color in Roman rhetoric, with definitions and major examples of its meanings and uses, first as a non-technical term and then as a technical term. Major ancient writers quoted in Chapter I are Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Quintilian, Sallust, Seneca Rhetor and Juvenal. There are additional definitions and commentaries from modern writers. In Chapter II we shall examine the First and Second Philippics of Cicero with emphasis on Cicero's definitions and use of color as a non-technical term. He also used co·lor in a technical manner. He employed this well-known and frequently used oratorical device which ·only after the advent of the Rhetorical schools and the ·decline of oratory durinq the empire, assumed the Latin nomen of· ·coTor. Chapter III will deal with the· Panegyricus to the ·Emperor Trajan written by Pliny the Younger. It is a valuable example of Silver Age adulation and em­ bellished rhetoric in which Pliny has used abundantly both technical and non-technical ·colores. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Non-Technical Color As a definition of colores in its general and non-technical sense, Stanley F. Bonner states, "The colores are the Persian carpet of the declaimeri look at it from one angle and the colours are bright and clear, the pat­ tern simple, but observe it from another angle, and the shade deepens, the pattern changes, and the whole appears in a different light."l Marcus Tullius Cicero exhibited a style of ora- tory equalled by few. In its clarity and brilliance it was his g£eat strength. Such a styie recognized the necessity, nevertheless, of some type of embellishment which Cicero believed was, to a certain degree, inherent in :the very nature of good oratory: "ornatur igitur oratio genere primum et .quasi colore quodam et suco suo. 11 2 lstanley F. Bonner, Rom:an· Decl"antation in the Late Republic and Early Emoire, (California: University of-­ California Press, 1949), p. 56. 2cic. De Or. 3.25.96. See A. s. Wilkins, ed., M.· Tulli CiceronisDe Oratore Libri Tres, (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1965), p. 459, n. 14,coIOre: "here it is • • • the generally diffused element which is thought of: we should say in this case ••• 'tone• or 'complexion'". 2 Thus the embellishment of oratory arises from its "'gen- eral character' and from its color or 'tone' and its own strength. 11 3 Cicero felt that this quality which had to be brought out by the orator, was not peculiar to any one part of oratory, but, as Ernesti writes, pertained to the whole corpus.4 It was this diffusion of ·coTor, or spirit · {sucus) , through the whole body of the speech which gave expression and feeling to the speech.5 It was color as a non-technical term with which Cicero was famill.ar. Color, as embellishment or decoration of oratory, and used in these instances by Cicero in a general, non- technical manner should not be thoughtlessly scattered at random over the entire speech. For just as satiation may occur with excessive richness in one's food and drink, so too, it easily occurs with language.6 This same stress on the necessity for moderation.in the use of colores 3wilkins, p. 459, n.14 genere. Cf. p. 518, n. 6, 11 co-io·r·em, "tone • 4J. c. T. Ernesti, Lexicon Technologiae Latinorum Rhetoricae, (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1962), p. 63, where he defines the corpus of the speech to which this quality 11 11 pertains as , a·11gemeiner Charackter der Rede • Sibid., p. 64. 6cic. De Or. 3.25.99-100. See Sen Rh.· Contr. 4.3.3, _where Pollio warns against putting a11· colores in one section; (See Bonner, p. 73). 3 is found in ·Ad Herennium: omne ·genus orationis, et grave et mediocre et atenuatum, dignitate adficiunt exornationes . • • quae ·si rarae "disponentur, distinctam si­ cuti coloribus, si crebrae conlocabuntur, ob­ liquam reddunt orationem.7 To Cicero, as to Seneca, 8 the well-applied use of ·colores was an important, even necessary ability of the well- trained orator. It was only the well-trained orator who possessed the capa~ity for rendering with grace and flavor those topics which would othe:rwise present themselves as deadly tedious and boring.9 Toward his conclusion of Book 3 of the De Oratore, Cicero again states the importance of the proper use of decorations, and then uses color in a somewhat different sense from the one he, had used previously, this time meaning "tone", in a discussion and definition of the three styles of ora­ tory .10 It is in all three styles, sublimi, medio et tenui, Ernesti states, that color should be found, not merely on the surface, but diffused thro~ghout in accord- 7Auct •· Ad Her. 11.16. Bsee Bonner, p. 147, where he states that Seneca was always ready to applaud a good col·or, but quite often criticized them as "far-fetched ·c16nge arcessitus, Controv. 1. 6. 9) , puerile (puerilis ,· "Suas. _2 .16, J?ionysius *µ1:'y;a,JC.1t3071s De ·rsoc. c. 12, De Dem. cc. 5, 20, 21) in bad taste (cacozelia, cacozelos, Controv. 9·.1.15, 10.2.28, Suas. 2.16, 7.11) or stupid (Controv. 1.3.11, 1.4.12) or iriept (Con:trov. 1.4.7)." 9cic. De or. 1.13.55-58. !Ocie. De or. 3.52.199. 4 ance with its very nature.11 Aqain from the De Oratore, co'lor is used with the idea of "tone": "Est", inquit Catulus , 11 ut dicis; sed iste ipse Caelius neque distinxit historiam varie­ tate colorum neque verborum conlocatione et tractu orationis leni et aequabili perpolivit illud opus; sed ut homo neque doctus neque maxime aptus ad dicendum, sicut potuit, dolavit; vicit tamen, ut dicis, superiores. 11 12 In commenting on this section, Wilkins states that "the MSS. all give locarum [for colorum]. • .Jacobs suggested colorum, which has been adopted by Kayser, Pid., Sorof, and some earlier editors. This is strongly supported by some parallel passages: cp.· Ad Her. 4.11.16 ••• and Or. 19.65 {of the epideictic style) ••• Of course color is in these passages (as in 3.25.95; 52.199) used in its ordinary sense, though applied figuratively •.• it is perhaps more natural here that Caelius should be charged with a want of variety in style, rather than with defic- ient sententiousness, though Cicero in Hrut. 93.322 does complain of the lack of orators in his youth ••• Kiihner rejects the reading colorum on the ground that the style is not discussed until the following clause, but this begs the question. Wit.h the reading in the text we may translate: 'But even your friend Caelius himself did llErnesti, p.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Addenda Et Corrigenda
    Christian Settipani CONTINUITE GENTILICE ET CONTINUITE FAMILIALE DANS LES FAMILLES SENATORIALES ROMAINES A L’EPOQUE IMPERIALE MYTHE ET REALITE Addenda I - III (juillet 2000- octobre 2002) P & G Prosopographica et Genealogica 2002 ADDENDA I (juillet 2000 - août 2001) Introduction Un an après la publication de mon livre, il apparaît opportun de donner un premier état des compléments et des corrections que l’on peut y apporter1. Je ne dirais qu’un mot des erreurs de forme, bien trop nombreuses hélas, mais qu’il reste toujours possible d’éliminer. J’ai répertorié ici celles que j’ai relevées au hasard des lectures. En revanche, les corrections de fond s’avèrent un mal rédhibitoire. La mise à jour de nouveaux documents (et on verra que plusieurs inscriptions importantes doivent être ajoutées au dossier), la prise en compte de publications qui m’avaient échappées ou simplement une réflexion différente rendront toujours l’œuvre mouvante et inachevée. Il m’a semblé que pour garder au livre son caractère d’actualité il fallait impérativement tenir à jour des addenda. Une publication traditionnelle aurait pour conséquence que ces addenda seraient eux-mêmes rapidement rendus insuffisants voire obsolètes dans un temps très court, à peine publiés sans doute2. La meilleure solution s’impose donc naturellement : une publication en ligne avec une remise à niveau régulière que l’on trouvera, pour l’instant, sur : http://www.linacre.ox.ac.uk/research/prosop/addrome.doc Il est bien entendu que cet état reste provisoire et ne s’assimile pas encore à une publication formelle et que je reste à l’écoute des suggestions, critiques ou corrections que l’on voudra bien me faire, et que j’essaierai d’en tenir compte du mieux possible3.
    [Show full text]
  • INGO GILDENHARD Cicero, Philippic 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119 Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary CICERO, PHILIPPIC 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119
    INGO GILDENHARD Cicero, Philippic 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119 Latin text, study aids with vocabulary, and commentary CICERO, PHILIPPIC 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119 Cicero, Philippic 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119 Latin text, study aids with vocabulary, and commentary Ingo Gildenhard https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2018 Ingo Gildenhard The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the author(s), but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work. Attribution should include the following information: Ingo Gildenhard, Cicero, Philippic 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2018. https://doi. org/10.11647/OBP.0156 Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https:// www.openbookpublishers.com/product/845#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://www.
    [Show full text]
  • Karen Moore Gaylan Dubose with Steven L. Jones
    Karen Moore Gaylan DuBose with Steven L. Jones Latin Alive!Latin Reader: Alive! LatinReader: Literature Latin Literature from Cicero from to Cicero Newton to Teacher’sNewton Edition © Classical Academic Press, 2014 Version 1.0 ISBN: 978-1-60051-200-1978-1-60051-201-8 All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Classical Academic Press. Classical Academic Press 2151 Market Street Camp Hill, PA 17011 www.ClassicalAcademicPress.com Scripture labeled “Vulgate” is taken from the Latin Vulgate. Subject Editor: Edward J. Kotynski Project Editor: Lauraine E. Gustafson Design: Lauraine E. Gustafson Banner image courtesy of Vector4Free/vecteezy.com Puzzle piece image courtesy of Vecto2000.com team/vecteezy.com pp. 76, 78: Image of Arria et Paetus sculpture by Pierre Lepautre and Jean-Baptiste Théodon courtesy of Neuceu via wikipedia.org pp. 79, 82: Image of Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt, courtesy of Berthold Werner via wikipedia.org p. 153: Image of Cambridge University Library courtesy of McAnt via wikipedia.org p. 161: Image of mosaic of a child playing with hoops courtesy of Prioryman via wikipedia.org p. 161: Image of Girl with a Hoop by Pierre-Auguste Renoir courtesy of AgnosticPreachersKid via wikipedia.org MVP.06.14 The excellent teacher will love students, kindle their imaginations, and instill a love of learning. Such a teacher, wrote Henry Adams, “affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” I have been blessed to have three such teachers in my life.
    [Show full text]
  • Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea Berit Van Neste University of South Florida
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 4-12-2006 Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea Berit Van Neste University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Religion Commons Scholar Commons Citation Neste, Berit Van, "Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea" (2006). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3782 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea by Berit Van Neste A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Religious Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: James F. Strange, Ph.D. Paul G. Schneider, Ph.D. Michael J. Decker, Ph.D. Date of Approval: April 12, 2006 Keywords: theology, philosophy, politics, patristic, medieval © Copyright 2006 , Berit Van Neste For Elizabeth and Calista Table of Contents Abstract ii Chapter 1 1 Introduction 1 Cicero’s Influence on Augustine 7 Chapter 2 13 Justice 13 Natural and Temporal Law 19 Commonwealth 34 Chapter 3 49 Just War 49 Chapter 4 60 Conclusion 60 References 64 i Cicero and St.
    [Show full text]
  • Idealizing Humanitas in Cicero's De Oratore, Or, Why Herbert O. Morrison
    Idealizing Humanitas in Cicero’s De oratore, or, why Herbert O. Morrison was wrong Taylor Putnam, 2016 Political Theory Research Workshop University of Toronto Working paper - please do not cite or circulate This paper draws primarily from material I intend to use in the introduction and first chapter of my dissertation, the latter of which will provide a more extensive account of Ciceronian humanitas against the backdrop of the waning Roman Republic. The larger dissertation project focuses on the concept of humanitas in the broader Roman context – traced through Cicero, Seneca the Younger, Tacitus, and Augustine - as a means to confront and challenge the modern understanding of “Humanity.” I greatly appreciate any and all feedback people are willing to share. Oh, my, get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames, and the - and it's falling on the mooring-mast and all the folks agree that this is terrible, this is one of the worst catastrophes in the world. […] It's–it's–it's the flames, […] oh, four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it ... it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's flames now ... and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring-mast. Oh, the humanity and all the passengers screaming around here. I told you, I can't even talk to people whose friends are on there. Ah! It's–it's–it's–it's ... o–ohhh! I–I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage.
    [Show full text]
  • Performance and Rhetoric in Cicero's Philippics * in Recent Years, the Idea Of
    Performance and Rhetoric in Cicero's Philippics * In recent years, the idea of 'performance' has become a more and more important concept for the analysis of literary texts, even if the notion of 'performance' in literary criticism still does not denote a single agreed theory, but is a collective term referring to a number of different aspects and methods. The performance approach seems obvious for some literary genres, like drama and also oratory, for which performance is an essential char­ acteristic. In the case of orations, in antiquity already a detailed doctrine of the perfect performance was established, both in theory and practice. Building on this knowledge and trying to recover the quintessential context of a speech, people have successfully attempted to explore a Roman orator's potential and to contexrualize Roman orations by reconstructing the delivery of sample speeches.' However, there are further levels of performance to be looked at in a Roman speech if the term 'performance' is understood in a more specific way: there is not only the actio that determines the performance of a complete speech; the texts of transmitted speeches also exhibit passages where the wording shows that the orator bases his argument on the performance situation, particularly by making use of the active participation of the audience. Reactions from the audience are deliberately elicited by the orator, for instance by taking on certain roles; these techniques stem from his rhetorical training (for example, ethopoiia); however, considering and commenting on these reactions subsequently yield a performative dialogue with the audience, mirrored in the text. That opens up the opportunity to reconstruct a performance situation which goes beyond identifying how rhetorical techniques have been realized by the orator.
    [Show full text]
  • Julius Caesar to Caligula)
    Notable instances of intellectual repression in Rome (Julius Caesar to Caligula) NB: Legal bases: • Twelve Tables (450 BC) (TT 8.1, cited by Cicero in Rep. 4.12, p. 79 in your text, who wholeheartedly agrees with the law) prohibited defamatory writings: ‘If any person had sung or composed against another person a song (=poem) such as was causing slander or insult to another…’ Penalty (in 450 BC, evidently) was to be clubbed to death. • maiestas (treason): first introduced 103 BC, underwent a variety of changes, though the important one was the law passed by Julius Caesar (lex Iulia maiestatis, ca. 45 BC) which made banishment the chief penalty. This was the law invoked frequently in the first century of the Principate (notably by Tiberius, but by almost all of his successors as well). Julius Caesar ca. 45 BC: expert on oracles exiled by Julius Caesar Augustus 31 BC(?): Octavian (=Augustus) burns all documents relevant to triumviral period 28 BC: philosopher (Anaxilaos), expert in magic, banished ca. 27 BC: Augustus curtails publication of the acta senatus (‘senatorial record’) ca. 18 BC(?): Augustus forbids publication of anonymous attacks 12 BC: Augustus, now pontifex maximus, burns all oracular books and writings. First known instance of ‘book burning’ (usually done under charge of maiestas) AD 6 (?): Corvus, professor of rhetoric, charged with ‘harming the state’ for discussing birth control and celibacy in his classroom. Outcome of trial unknown. ca. AD 6-8: Titus Labienus, Augustan orator and an historian, has his writings confiscated and burned by senatorial decree (on grounds that his writings were treasonous).
    [Show full text]
  • Latin Criticism of the Early Empire Pp
    Cambridge Histories Online http://universitypublishingonline.org/cambridge/histories/ The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism Edited by George Alexander Kennedy Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300063 Online ISBN: 9781139055338 Hardback ISBN: 9780521300063 Paperback ISBN: 9780521317177 Chapter 9 - Latin Criticism of the Early Empire pp. 274-296 Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521300063.010 Cambridge University Press LATIN CRITICISM OF THE EARLY EMPIRE The name 'Silver Latin' is often given to the literature of the first century of the Christian era and is generally understood to imply its inferiority to the Golden Age of the late Republic and Augustan era. Analogy with the five Hesiodic ages, in which the silver age was both later and less worthy than the golden, suggests the cliche of decline. To what extent did the Romans of the early imperial period feel that they and their contemporaries were a falling away from the previous generation? We will see that the change in form of government, by denying opportunities for significant political speech, trivialised the art of oratory. But was there any such external constraint on poetry? Modern critics have reproached Silver Latin epic and tragedy with being 'rhetorical'. Certainly it is clear from Tacitus' Dialogus that men thwarted from political expression transferred to the safer vehicle of historical or mythical poetry both the techniques and ideals of public oratory. But just as no one suggests that Juvenal's satires were poorer compositions because of his apparent rhetorical skill, so rhetorical colouring in the higher poetic genres of tragedy and epic is not necessarily a fault.
    [Show full text]
  • De Oratore I
    D E O R A T O R E BO O" 1 TRA N S L A TED IN TO E N G LIS H W ITH A N IN T R O DU C TIO N B Y P E N . MOOR M . , . A . A S S I S T A N T M A S T E R A T C L I F T O N C O L L E G E filamj um a nti 1 8 BU RY S TREET W C , . L O N D O N 1 8 9 2 IN TR O D U C TIO N H T E t hre e b o o k s De Ora tore seem to have been B . C 5 5 written by Cicero in the year . It was n t o n s o f a time when, owi g the i crea ing power the fo r Triumvirs, there was little room any political activity o n o f his the part Cicero . On recall from exile in the preceding year he had conceived som e hopes o f again taking a leading part in political life but owing partly to the lukewarmness o f some and the downright faith o f o f lessness others his old supporters, which made it impossible for him to resume his o l d place at the head o f s ro the optimates, and partly to the clo er union p du ced between Pom peia s and Caesar by the conference s at Luca, he thought it more advi able to withdraw f m s a s inva ri ro public life and con ole himself, was his 1 w able custom , with literary work .
    [Show full text]
  • Cicero, Rhetoric, and Republicanism in the Columbian Orator
    Cicero, Rhetoric, and Republicanism in the Columbian Orator The influence of ancient Greece and Rome on early America was pervasive, and recent scholarship (e.g., Richard 1995, Winterer 2004) has shown how this familiarity with the classics affected many aspects of American public and personal life. Much work, however, remains to be done in tracing out the specific strands of classical learning that early Americans encountered. This paper, by providing an examination of how a key classical figure, Cicero, is presented in a key schoolroom text of early America (Caleb Bingham’s 1797 Columbian Orator), will model a strategy for how this sort of work can proceed. For many early Americans, the Columbian Orator would have been the first introduction to the art of speaking and writing like an American: over 200,000 copies were sold, and the textbook went through twenty-three editions, the last one printed in 1860. As a radically egalitarian republican, Bingham believed that the new republic needed educated and equally egalitarian citizens to advocate on its behalf, and his textbook presented readers with a dignified, classical style of speech that was bare of any aristocratic affectations (Cmiel 1990). The influence of Bingham’s textbook on early American intellectual thought was profound. Abraham Lincoln pored over it during a cold Illinois winter, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Harriet Beecher Stowe drew some of their nonconformist activism from its pages, and in 1830, a young slave named Frederick Douglass took 50 cents he had earned from polishing boots and bought himself a copy. Bingham’s abolitionist spirit spoke powerfully to Douglass, who later said that “every opportunity I got, I used to read this book” (Blight 1998).
    [Show full text]
  • When Kings Become Philosophers: the Late Republican Origins of Cicero’S Political Philosophy
    When Kings Become Philosophers: The Late Republican Origins of Cicero’s Political Philosophy By Gregory Douglas Smay A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Erich S. Gruen, Chair Professor Carlos F. Noreña Professor Anthony A. Long Summer 2016 © Copyright by Gregory Douglas Smay 2016 All Rights Reserved Abstract When Kings Become Philosophers: The Late Republican Origins of Cicero’s Political Philosophy by Gregory Douglas Smay Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology University of California, Berkeley Professor Erich S. Gruen, Chair This dissertation argues that Cicero’s de Republica is both a reflection of, and a commentary on, the era in which it was written to a degree not previously recognized in Ciceronian scholarship. Contra readings which treat the work primarily as a theoretical tract in the tradition of late Hellenistic philosophy, this study situates the work within its historical context in Late Republican Rome, and in particular within the personal experience of its author during this tumultuous period. This approach yields new insights into both the meaning and significance of the work and the outlook of the individual who is our single most important witness to the history of the last decades of the Roman Republic. Specifically, the dissertation argues that Cicero provides clues preserved in the extant portions of the de Republica, overlooked by modern students in the past bur clearly recognizable to readers in his own day, indicating that it was meant to be read as a work with important contemporary political resonances.
    [Show full text]
  • Reevaluating Cremutius Cordus in Tacitus' Annals
    DECUS POSTERITAS REPENDIT: Reevaluating Cremutius Cordus in Tacitus’ Annals By © 2017 Michael Tae Woo B.A., University of California, Davis, 2015 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Classics and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Chair: Dr. Anthony Corbeill Dr. Emma Scioli Dr. Craig Jendza Date Submitted: 10 May 2017 ii The thesis committee for Michael Tae Woo certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: DECUS POSTERITAS REPENDIT: Reevaluating Cremutius Cordus in Tacitus’ Annals Chair: Dr. Anthony Corbeill Date Approved: 10 May 2017 iii Abstract In one of the best known passages in the Annals, Tacitus gives an account of the trial and death of Aulus Cremutius Cordus (A. 4.34-35), a Roman historian documenting the transitional period from the Roman Republic to the Empire. In this account Cordus is given a speech with which he defends a historian’s right to praise the enemies of the emperor. The majority of modern scholars have interpreted Tacitus’ account as unqualified praise for Cordus, and many have suggested that readers are to understand Cordus as a surrogate for Tacitus’ own views on the rights and duties of historians. In this project I attempt to challenge that consensus. I argue that Cordus and Tacitus disagree in their historiographical, political, and even moral principles, and that Tacitus’ account of Cordus’ trial and death contains criticism of the historian, even while acknowledging his courage. This reading complicates Tacitus’ relationship to Cordus and to several other characters in the Annals who, though they die deaths of great renown, effect little change.
    [Show full text]